The United Kingdom Data Protection Act 1998 is the main piece of legislation that governs the protection of personal data in the UK. It was enacted to bring UK law into line with the European Directive of 1995 which requires member states to protect people's fundamental rights and freedoms in respect to the processing of personal data. Breaches of the United Kingdom Data Protection Act 1998 or failing to adhere to it are now liable to a separate fine from the Information Commissioner's Office, which have now topped £1 million since it was brought into effect last year. The United Kingdom Corporate Governance Code 2010 is overseen by the Financial Reporting Council and is an additional set of principles of good corporate governance aimed at companies listed on the London Stock Exchange.

Organizations that collect personally identifiable data face a potential minefield as they have an obligation to confirm exactly what data is considered protected, what consent they need to obtain from data subjects, and what safeguards they should employ to protect that data from unauthorized use.

Historically, the time companies needed to spend manually collecting and monitoring log files was highly resource-sapping, with auditors asking for the same audit data often for multiple data protection requirements again and again.

“Not every company has the luxury of being able to employ dedicated security professionals. Network admins are increasingly being asked to monitor security, yet they often drown under the deluge of logs generated by the modern business so have got into a dangerous habit of ignoring them,” said Susan Read-Miller, Principal Product Marketing Manager of Ipswitch’s Network Management Division. “WhatsUp Log Management can help them automate this process, thus not only protecting the business from potential breaches but saving them time and potentially hefty fines.”

Organisations of all sizes can profit from significant time savings. One Ipswitch customer, a U.S. federal agency, states that WhatsUp Log Management has saved them 30-40 staff hours per month in basic maintenance for managing log data, saving them over $30,000 per year.

Ipswitch Network Management Division has recently published a white paper entitled ‘Event Log Management for Security and Compliance Initiatives in the European Union’ that can be downloaded here. For more information about this latest release, join Ipswitch for a webinar titled ‘Protect Your Data with Automated Log Management’ on March 27th at 1 p.m. GMT to see this new functionality in action.

About the Network Management Division of Ipswitch, Inc.

The Network Management Division of Ipswitch, Inc. is the developer of the WhatsUp Gold suite of innovative IT management software. WhatsUp Gold is deployed on over 100,000 networks worldwide and delivers comprehensive network, system, application and event log monitoring and management solutions for small and medium businesses and enterprises. The award winning solution supports a wide range of IT management tasks including automated discovery, mapping, real-time monitoring, alerting, troubleshooting and reporting.

Founded in 1991, Ipswitch, Inc. is headquartered in Lexington, Massachusetts, and has offices in Atlanta and Augusta, Georgia and Madison, Wisconsin, as well as its European headquarters in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Ipswitch sells its products through distributors, resellers and OEMs worldwide.

To learn more about WhatsUp Log Management or download an evaluation, please visit: